With many firms recruiting diverse talent, a new report by the CFP Board highlights ways workplaces can retain their employees.
The report, “Creating a DEI-Driven Culture of Retention in Financial Planning: Lessons Learned from Industry Leaders,” encourages firms to create a “culture of retention,” one equipped with retention goals, internal assessments, and equitable hiring.
On setting goals, the CFP Board says leaders should review organizational metrics, including overall workforce demographics and the racial, ethnic, and gender breakdowns within teams. “Such an analysis allows a firm to identify key opportunities for improvement and develop retention goals based on those findings,” the CFP Board wrote in its report.
An internal assessment should also come with an equity scan, where company policies, processes, and practices are reviewed to determine whether they were initially written in a discriminatory way, according to the report. For example, this could include policies that only subject women employees to parental leave benefits, the CFP Board said.
Developing an “equity lens,” or an examination of proposed policies, programs, and accountability measures ensures firms are checking if and which voices are absent from decisionmaking processes.
The CFP Board urges firms to ask themselves: What is the decision to be made, and who will be impacted? Will the people impacted by the decision be meaningfully informed and engaged in the discussion? Who is responsible for making changes to ensure inclusion? How does the firm hold individuals and the organization accountable for changing practices? And, is the firm collecting and leveraging data, both qualitative and quantitative, to inform its decision?
Once the company develops an “equity lens,” leaders should utilize it in all aspects of employees’ work lives, from their job application to retirement.
An equitable foundation
The CFP Board highlights a series of recruitment practices to achieve retention goals, including developing bias-free job descriptions, sourcing candidates from outside networks, and even refining the interview process.
Firms should create clear and detailed job descriptions that identify the needs of the job description, to encourage a higher quality pool of candidates. This can also help remove bias from the hiring process, as vague job descriptions “leave more room for subjective interpretation of candidates’ qualifications,” said the CFP Board.
Extending networking reach can also help firms attract new and diverse candidates, along with creating diverse interview panels with participants representing different genders, race, ethnic groups, and roles within the company.
The more diverse the recruiting network and interview panel are, the more diverse the candidate policy and hire will be, added the CFP Board.
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Amanda Umpierrez is the Managing Editor of 401(k) Specialist magazine. She is a financial services reporter with over six years of experience and a passion for telling stories and reporting news. Amanda received her degree in journalism and government and politics at St. John’s University. She is originally from Queens, New York, but now resides in Denver, Colorado with her partner. In her free time, Amanda enjoys running, cooking, and watching the latest drama show.